Method of printing textiles



Patented Feb. 29, 1944 METHOD or PRINTING TEXTILES Willard L. Morgan, Edgewood, R. I., assignor to Arnold, Hoffman da 00. Incorporated, a corporation of Rhode Island No Drawing. Application April 3, 1941,

Serial No. 386,627

2 Claims.

This invention relates to thickener or carrier pastes for printing dyestuffs onto textile fabrics of cotton, rayon or other textile fibers. The printing of textiles as normally practiced comprises essentially locally dyeing areas in order to secure desired designs. The dyestuff solution is applied to the cloth by passage of the cloth past an intaglio engraved roll. The cloth picks up the dyestuffs solution from the impressions in the roll. In order thatthe dyestuif solution shall be picked up from the impressions in sufflcient quantity and not spread but give sharp impressions of the pattern, it is necessary that the dyestuif solution be thickened up to a very heavy paste. This'thickening is usually secured by dissolving the dyestufi in thick, heavy, boiled starch paste or a paste containing natural gums, such as tragacanth', locust bean, or gum arabic. After the goods have been printed and dried they are put through various steaming or aging operations to cause the dyestufi' to penetrate into the fibers or to fix the dyestuff in the goods. The textile printer then finds his printed goods are stiffened where they are printed due to the deposit of starches or gums on the cloth, and in order to secure cloth which feels the same throughout, it is necessary that the goods be washed or even desized with enzymes, inasmuch as the starches are frequently very difilcult to wash out and remove from the goods. In the case of printing on rayon, it is practically impossible to print with most of the commercial starches inasmuch as they cannot be removed from the rayon suillciently easy and can only be removed by prolonged washing which, with the light rayon fabrics, is suflicient to distort'the goods and cause severe damage.

The goods printed with printing paste thickened with either starches or the natural gums must also be washed inasmuch as these materials stay on top of the goods and prevent considerable of the dyestuff from being absorbed into the textile fabric and it is necessary to wash of! the gums and starches in order to remove such unflxed dyestuffs.

I have found new means of thickening dyestuif printing pastes, which thickened pastes give sharp prints and keep the dyestufi from spreading, spewing, or bleeding during the printing. Using the new thickeners which I hereinafter disclose as the specification proceeds, the printed textile fabrics are soft, highly water absorbent, and show no stiffening as they come from the printing machine, and washing may in 'ethanolamines. 'ly large quantity, the amounts being present potassium, ammonium, borax, or the organic bases, such as triethanolamine and the other The soaps are used in relativein the final printing paste in excess of 3%. When I use soap alone, there is a tendency towards foaming unless the pastes are quite heavy and thick and in many of my compositions I prefer to use with the soaps, solid fatty substances which are insoluble in water, these .preferably. being beeswax, Japan wax, solid fatty glyceride esters such as tallow, glyceryl monostearate, hydrogenated solid fatty glycerides; solid fatty acids such as stearic acid, palmitic acid or mixtures of the same, solid hydrogenated fatty acids; andthe solid glycol esters with the fatty acids, such as diethylene glycol distearate, diethylene glycol monostearate, and propylene glycol monostearate- As will be apparent in the examples to follow, these materials are present as thick suspensions in my pastes, each of these having a thickening value and also being characterized by preventing foaming from the soaps especially when the laquer phase contains mostly light hydrocarbons. In all of the pastes I prefer to have at least 3% of soaps and a minimum total of soaps, and water insoluble fatty substances of over 3% in the final printing paste, such being necessary to secure the heavy bodies which are necessary for printing consistencies. I am aware that soaps in small percentages, generally below 1%, have been used to stabilize suspensions of fatty and lacquer emulsions, but to my knowledge these materials have not been used in large concentrations such as I propose where in addition to acting as stabilizing agents for the suspensions of fatty materials and for the lacquer emulsions, they are at the same time acting as thickeners suitable for textile printing.

As mentioned, the use of soaps in pastes, which are relatively thin, is attended with the dimculty of foaming and due to the well known foaming properties of these materials the use of either of them in connection with printing pastes has long been considered to be impossible. I have discovered that when they are used in very heavy pastes in the aqueous phase, the foaming is overcome and particularly when they are. used in pastes carrying suspended fatty insoluble materials that the latter act as antifoaming agents. I may also add other antifoaming substances, such as pine oil, alpha terpineol, kerosene, naphtha, or octyl alcohol to the lacquer phase, but in general I find that where I have suspended fatty insoluble materials this is not necessary.

While the total amount of soaps, and suspended solid fatty materials is at least 3%, it is not necessary that this total be beyond 50% of the paste in extreme cases;

The dyestuff is dissolved in these pastes prior to printing and I may print with any of the ordinary dyestuifs, such as direct colors, formaldehyde type colors, rapidogens. indigosols, or basic colors. After printing, the cloth is dried on the dry cans as usual and the cloth is then put through the ordinary appropriate procedures of steaming or aging appropriate to the particular type of dyestuff and used for setting the same onto the cloth.

By way of illustrating the detailed practice of this invention, I give the following examples:

Example 1 A stock paste of a triethanolamine stearate soap containing free stearic acid was made up of the following ingredients:

A stock paste of a triethanolamine stearate soap containing free stearic acid was made up of the following ingredients:

Pounds stearic acid 9.967 Triethanolaminegflun 1.033 Borax 0.4 Water 38.6

Total 50.0

Pounds Chlorantine Fast Red 7BLN direct dyestuff, Ciba Co 2 Urea Water 33 The dyestuif solution was stirred in thoroughly and the thick creamy paste was then printed on to a rayon fabric with the ordinary textile printing machine using an intaglio engraved roll. The paste contained 3% of the soap triethanolamine stearate and 8% of suspended solid stearic acid. The print was then dried, aged for five minutes, and steamed at atmospheric pressure for fortyfive minutes in order to properly fix the direct dyestufl. The printed cloth showed a sharp print and was free of any stiffness where printed. The cloth can be used directly as printed without washing. Fastness to rubbing was good showing that the dyestufl was not on the surface but was penetrated into the goods.

Example 2 A thick paste containing 12% free stearic acid. 12% potassium stearate, 0.5% isothymol and 75.5% water, was made up by melting up the stearic acid and of the water. The alkali and the rest of the water heated together were added to the molten stearic acid and water mix. To 70# of the above mix the following dye solution was added:

Pounds Azoanthrene Scarlet 0 (formaldehyde type direct dyestuff) (Althouse Chemical C0,)--. 2 Aldo] 2 Urea 15 Water 19 Example 3 To a heavy paste containing 13.2# sodium oleate soap and 50;, water is added a dye solution containing 2:: Calcodur Orange ESGL (Calco Chemical Co.-direct dyestuii'), 10# urea, and 24.8# water making a total of l00#. This printing paste was printed on cotton, dried, aged five minutes and then steamed for forty-five minutes at atmospheric pressure, after which the goods were given a spray wash and then finished by drying on cans.

Example 4 A thick paste was made up by adding a caustic solution containing 1.4# of sodium hydroxide and 7# of water to a mix containing 14# oleic acid and 17.6# of pine oil. A printing paste was made from the above by adding the following dye solution containing 2.5# Alizarine Cyanine Green BG, acid dyestufl', Rowe Color Index No. 1078,

4.5# urea and 1334* water. This printing paste was printed on worsted material, dried, and steamed for fifteen minutes, after which the goods were given a spray wash. The paste as printed contained 6.25% sodium oleate soap.

Example 5 A thick paste was made by heating 3# sodium oleate soap and 55.81%: water and 5.0# of diethylene glycol monostearate, which mix forms a heavy, smooth, creamy paste made by stirring and heating together. To the above a total paste of was made by adding the following basic dye solution containing 1.9# magenta (Rowe Color Index #677), 4.76# tannic acid, 2.38# monoethanol urea, 1.19# urea, 4.76# glacial acetic acid, 21.2# water. The dye solution was made by adding the dyestufl and half of the water to a solution of tannic acid, monoethanol urea, urea, glacial acetic acid and the remaining water. The printing paste was printed on cotton, dried, aged for five minutes, and then steamed for forty-five minutes at atmospheric pressure. It was then run through an open bath wash and finished by drying on cans.

Example 6 A thick printing paste made by melting together 15# of stearic acid, 8# of beeswax, 17# of 200-viscosity white mineral oil, and 8# of The above descriptions and examples are intended to illustrate the nature of this invention,

1. A textile color printing paste containing as the essential thickener water soluble fatty acid soap and free fatty acid in which the soap and fatty mixture range from 3% to about 24% of thetotal paste.

2. A textile color printing paste containing as the essential thickenerwater soluble soap and free stearic acid in which the soap and fatty mixture range from 3% to about 24% oi the but the invention is not restricted to these exam- 1 total paste.

pies.

I claim:

' WILLARD L. MORGAN. 

